II THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT- Salt Covenant

Pastor Carolyn Sissom \ May 5st, 2010 (9198 views)

II THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

(Salt Covenant)

 

KINGDOM LIVING

 

(Matthew 5: 13-26)

 

Preached by:  Pastor Carolyn Sissom

 

Sunday, April 25, 2010

  

5: 13-16:  SALT AND LIGHT:   If our lifestyle is not a rebuke to the darkness of this world system, we have lost our effectiveness and are worthy of contempt.  As a Christian nation, we watched this week as Franklin Graham was dis-invited to lead prayer at the Pentagon because he made a statement that Islam is an evil religion.

  

Evil is the willful disregard of the norms of society that cause suffering, destruction or death.  Islam will have a family member killed if they become a Christian.  Islam cuts off people’s heads if they disregard their religion.  Radical Islam bombed our nation and killed thousands of our citizens.  They have made numerous attempts to bomb us with the intent to cause harm to the U.S.A and bring death to our citizens.   This is the work of evil.  We are at war with radical Islam.  They attacked us.

  

Many Christians are running and hiding behind the door or creeping around in fear because they are afraid to stand up and speak up for their Faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and that through His shed blood is the only way of salvation. 

   

5: 13-16: You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?  It is therefore good for nothing, but to cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.  You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

  

“Lost its savor (flat, play the fool, tasteless, become foolish; lost its strength or ability and become good for not even one thing; lost its quality = Amplified); cast out (thrown out; “completely useless” = Phillips); trodden (trampled, trodden down).

  

Salt speaks of the covenant relationship:  Numbers 18:19: All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, have I given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord to you and to your seed with you.”

  

Mark 9: 49-50: “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.  Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltiness, wherewith will you season it?  Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another.”

  

Salt makes Christ the Bread of life more palatable and it also counteracts corruption, proving the earth to be putrefied.

  

Genesis 6:5:  “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

  

Genesis 6:11:  “The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”

  

We are the preserver of the earth.  11 Thess. 2:7:  For the mystery of iniquity does already work; only He who now lets will let, until He be taken out of the way.”

  

Without Christ, life is tasteless (no purpose).  Be as salt and gives others a taste of the Kingdom  2 Kings 2:19-23: “And the men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, I pray you, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is nothing, and the ground barren.  And he went forth to the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, thus says the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from there any more death or barren land.  So the waters were healed to this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spoke.’

  

We need prophets like Elisha who carry the Salt of the Kingdom of God and are able to deposit it in our cities.  Franklin Graham has some salt.  If he will not compromise or cave in under this affront, He will come up under a greater weight of glory.  Billy Graham was shunned in Washington D.C. by Harry Truman because of ignorance of certain protocol.  Billy Graham went on to be a Great in the Kingdom of Heaven as an Evangelist to reach over 2 billion people for Jesus Christ.

  

Unsalty salt cannot be reconstituted.  If our life-style is not a rebuke to the darkness of this world system, we have lost our effectiveness.  Will the Christian church run and hide in fear or arise with the Boldness of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah?

  

LIGHT:  No man can live unto himself.  Every man is a profound influence. (Matt. 12: 30-33) “He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad.  Wherefore I say to you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men; but the blasphemy against the Holy ghost shall not be forgiven to men.  And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgive him, but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.  Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.”

  

The light of God is the beauty of our life.  We are light, partakers of the divine nature. John 8:12:  “Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, “I am the light of the world, he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

  

We do not shine alone, but shine together with the other lights of the city.  As ministers of the gospel, we all have experienced those who have to be the center of attention.  This is called “ego”.  When we have our annual conferences, you will note that none of the ministers or ministries are lifted one above the other.  This is because none shine alone, but all shine together.  We start the meetings strong and keep getting stronger as the meetings progress.   We are all part of the lamp stand.This lamp’s function is to stand.

  

Salt irritates men (which way to go?  What must I do to be saved?”)   Light guides and shows man the way.  As salt is for corruption, so light is for darkness.  One cures foulness, the other delivers from ignorance and blindness.

  

Eph. 5:8: “For you were sometimes darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.

  

Phil 2:15:  That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

  

1 Thess. 5: 1-9: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren you have no need that I write to you.  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night.  For when they shall say, Peace, and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  But you brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  You are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”

  

5: 17-20:  RIGHTEOUS LIVING:  “Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets.  I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For verily I say to you, Until heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until all be fulfilled.  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

  

True righteousness must flow from within. (Matt. 23:23-29) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

  

Man has always attempted his own righteousness (Cain) and to project himself as righteous.  This is the hypocrites.

  

The Greater Law supersedes the lesser law –the New Covenant supersedes the Old covenant.  Rom 8: 1-2: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

  

When we move out of the law of liberty, we immediately allow the law of sin and death to operate.  (For example, a spirit that says, “What can I get by with?”  This is also rebellion.

  

We can stay within the principle of the Kingdom by resting in Jesus or we can move back to the realm of sin and death by struggling in self-effort.  As Kathie Walters says, “snuggle don’t struggle”.  The law of sin and death says, “I would like to but I can’t”.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus says, “I can but I don’t like (want, desire) to!”

  

To fulfill the law means “to fill to the top.”  The Law is complete only through Jesus Christ.  The Old Covenant described the vessel, but Jesus filled it.  We keep the commandments by truly loving God as well as our neighbor as ourselves.  Jesus never broke the Law, but He did break the traditions which men added to the Law.  In demonstrating the real meaning of the Old covenant, Jesus was accused of breaking the Law.

  “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” – they were Fundamentalists while the Sadducees were modernists.   

Twelve points of Pharisaical righteousness which were observed religiously as a duty to be a basis of salvation:

  

1. Teachers of the Law of Moses (Matt. 23: 1-3)
2. Prayed long prayers (Matt. 6:5; 23:14)
3. Fasted twice a week (Matt. 6: 16-18; Lk 18:12)
4. Practiced tithing (Matt. 23:23; Lk. 18:12)
5. Tireless workers and soul winners (Matt. 23:15) “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”
6.  Champions of Scripture (Matt. 23: 1-3) “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:  All therefore they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not you after their works; for they say, and do not.  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  But all their works they do to be seen of men.”
7. Dressed properly – enlarged their borders and broadened their phylacteries (Matt. 23:5) --attendance and Jesus button’s “mindful” of the Scriptures.
8. Prophesied (John 11: 47-51) – Caiaphas the high priest prophesied that Jesus would die for the people that the whole nation would not perish.  And not for that nation only, but also He should gather together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad.  Then from that day forth they took counsel together to put Him to death.
9. Believed in the coming of Christ and an Elijah ministry. (John 1: 24-25)
10. Fundamental in doctrine (fought and defended their cause of their righteousness against the modernist Sadducees) (Acts 23:8).
11. Condemned the fathers for persecuting the prophets (Matt. 23: 29-31)” “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.”
12. Strictest sect—self-disciplined (Acts 26:5) Paul was of the strictest sect.

  

Our righteousness of faith rests upon Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law.  Here is no room for boasting.  Many think they are spiritual and some thing they are super-spiritual.  This is no different than the thinking of the scribes and Pharisees.  There is no room for boasting.  Only as we walk what we have received does out faith become life.  Talk won’t get you there.  Pride and boasting of your gifts and callings won’t get you there.  Titles and accolades from men won’t get you there.  The only thing that really counts is what Heaven says about you.  We are to be an expression of Him on this earth.  That only comes from walking, not from talking.

  

Matthew 5: 21-22:  THE PRINCIPLE OF ANGER:  “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, you shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.  But I say to you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, raca, shall be in the danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 

   

There are three levels of anger described in this section.

  

1. angry – (aroused or provoked to anger)
2. Raca – empty-headed, senseless, contemptible, “simpleton”
3. Calling some a fool --- which means moron, worthless, dull, sluggish, stupid, godless, reprobate

  

Raca scorns the mind while “fool” scorns the heart and the character and is far more serious.

  

These are three kinds of anger.  This principle is dealing with Christians.  These kinds of anger progress in their intensity.  If the first kind of anger is dealt with, we will never have to deal with the other two:   Eph. 4:26:  Be you angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; Neither give place to the devil.

  

1. Being angry without a cause – a critical spirit that pre-judges and condemns; an attitude that says, “I just don’t like that person.”  We will reap what we sow.  (Gal. 6:7)
2. Being angry with a cause ---Raca means evil one or stupid.  This kind of anger will get us into trouble and bring us before the council, or those in authority such as parents or the ministries of  Eph. 4:11.
3. Being angry without restraint—The second kind of anger often sparks a chain reaction (you slander me and I’ll slander you!); this final kind of anger is explosive and is expressed with cursing, violence, rage and could even lead into demon-possession.  This kind of anger becomes a spirit of anger.  This kind of anger can also result from severe violent trauma, abuse or tragedy.

  

Matthew 5: 23-26:  THE PRINCIPLE OF BENDING: “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you; leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; less at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and you be cast into prison.  Verily I say to you, you shall by no means come out there, until you have paid the uttermost farthing.”

  This ties in with the former principle of anger with a brother.  It deals with broken fellowship while there is still a relationship with a brother.  God can become our adversary when we in self-will and stubbornness refuse to walk in the pattern of the bible.  there has been many a situation where a life or ministry hinged on a broken fellowship that needed to be mended.  God’s pattern of growth always in working into us by our personal relatinships with our brothers.  There can be no independence.    

The Gift of Matthew 5:23 could be our:

  

1. Body (Rom 12: 1-2)
2. Praise (Heb. 13:15)
3. Finances (Heb. 13:16)
4. Words and meditations (Ps. 19:14)

  

This can certainly be literal and refer to authorities.  However, for today, I will spiritualize it and compare it to a Christian being sent to the woodshed.  Have you ever been in God’s woodshed?

  

1. The “Adversary” of Matt. 5:25  then can be the Holy Ghost. (Gal. 5:17;’ Isa. 63:10; Jn. 14:26; Amos 3:3).
2. The “Judge” of Matthew 5:25 is “the council” of Matt. 5:22 and points to Jesus the Judge.
3. The “Officer” of Matthew 5:25 points to the Father. (Heb. 10:11)

 

This evening I will continue with The Sermon on the Mount beginning with Matthew 27-30, the Principle of Purity of Heart.

 Preached by:  Carolyn Sissom, PastorEastgate Ministries, Inc.Scripture from K.J.V. Bibliography: Sermon on the Mount by:  Kelly Varner; Comments and conclusions are my own.We video our Sunday a.m. service.  All other services are on audio.